Tanaami
A final evening of the DNC event at the United Center featured Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech of her parties nomination as candidate for the presidency. I was transfixed by the superb choice of words, the artistry of the rhetoric, while feeling a bit of discomfort. Upon reflection this morning I understand that the speech was meant for “on the fence” Republicans and for any undecideds. The appeal to patriotism was constant, the familiar God N’ Country tropes were salted throughout the 35 minute speech. I get it. Unless she wins the election, there is absolutely no point. Winning is everything, winning big, recapturing a House majority, etc..
Nevertheless climate warming begs for address in the most robust manner. The nation of Ukraine must be given the latest arms, in sufficient quantity, with no strings attached in order to retake their lost territory, and shut down Putin’s transparent intention to reassemble greater Russia. And then there is the bloodbath of Palestinian civilians funded by the American taxpayer. How is America not able to insist that Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu desist this genocide – without further losing our souls?
As I said Harris’ speech was not meant for those who think like I do.
A change of subject. I have been thinking about the death of an artist. Keiichi Tanaami died on August 9th. This is what is written in wikipedia about him:
Keiichi Tanaami was born in Tokyo on 21 July 1936, as the eldest son of a textile wholesaler. He was 9 years old when Tokyo was bombed during the Great Tokyo Air Raid of World War II in 1945. Images seared into the back of his mind at this time would become major motifs in his art works: roaring American bombers, searchlights scanning the skies, firebombs dropped from planes, the city a sea of fire, fleeing masses, and his father’s deformed goldfish swimming in its tank, flashes from the bombs reflecting in the water.
“I was rushed away from my childhood, a time that should be filled with eating and playing, by the enigmatic monstrosity of war; my dreams were a vortex of fear and anxiety, anger and resignation. On the night of the air raid, I remember watching swarms of people flee from bald mountaintops. But then something occurs to me: was that moment real? Dream and reality are all mixed up in my memories, recorded permanently in this ambiguous way.”
Tanaami took to drawing from a young age, and as a junior high school student he often spent time at the studio of leading postwar cartoonist Kazushi Hara with the intention of becoming a cartoonist himself. After Hara’s sudden death, however, he turned to the pioneering field within manga of graphic novels, and went on to study to become a professional artist at Musashino Art University.
I paraphrase a few lines from Nietzsche to characterize Tanaami’s contribution to all of us. The header image is of Tanaami’s Last Supper.
a talent far above [his] genius –,
a virtuoso through and through,
with uncanny access to everything tempting,
seductive, compelling, and subversive,
born enemy of logic and straight lines,
longing for the foreign, the exotic, the monstrous, the crooked, the self-contradictory…
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Judith Norman, aphorism 265
2 thoughts on “Tanaami”
In the NY Times this morning, reporters interviewed a number of so-called “undecided” voters. Most were unswayed by anything that transpired at the DNC. One professor of political science in North Carolina even had the audacity to state that Harris would actually make a great president if only she was more conservative. So he’s sticking with Trump. What on earth does that mean? What does the moniker of “conservative” even translate to in today’s vernacular?
In the old days being a conservative meant being fiscally responsible with a desire for smaller government and greater individual autonomy. Today it seems to have morphed into a religious screed that has more to do with greater government control over individuals, less fiscal responsibility, and increased financial disparity between the classes.
So if Harris is attempting to reach out to that voter, it apparently doesn’t work. Yes, I agree that we must pay a lot more attention to the devastating impact of greed on our quickly diminishing environment. I was only slightly heartened by the mention of the climate disaster in last night’s DNC finale, but the main message that was expressed over and over, was the existential threat of Trump and not the substance, the nuts and bolts, of what we must do to create a better world. Perhaps that will manifest itself in the coming weeks.
Regardless of whether or not I heard exactly what I wanted to hear from the speakers at the convention, Rachel and I are ALL IN on the election of the Harris/Walz ticket and every single down ballot democrat we can support. There is no time for equivocation.
Conservatism has become an infantile scream for “Daddy”, for the god-like all powerful dispenser of my happiness…
When enough of us want “that”…
Vote Harris/Walz, vote democracy!